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montagnard definitions

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Merriam Webster's

noun Usage: often capitalized Etymology: French, mountaineer, from montagne mountain, from Old French montaigne Date: 1842 a member of any of various peoples inhabiting the highlands of central and southern Vietnam • montagnard adjective, often capitalized

Britannica Concise

(French: "Mountain Man") Radical deputy in the National Convention during the French Revolution. The Montagnards were so called because as deputies they sat on the higher benches (the Mountain) above the uncommitted deputies of the Plain. The Montagnards emerged in 1792 as opponents of the moderate Girondins and later associated with the radical Jacobins in the Committee of Public Safety. After the Thermidorian Reaction, many Montagnards were executed or purged from the convention, and they became a minority called the crê te ("crest").